That question hung over the rows of identical fire-red bicycles lined up last week for the start of Capital Bikeshare in Washington, the nation’s largest bike-sharing program.

Similar programs also began this year in Denver and Minneapolis, with another to start in Miami this fall. At the same time, start-up companies with names like SnapGoods, Share Some Sugar and NeighborGoods are trying to make money by using social networks to let people borrow or lend their stuff, either free or for a fee.

These companies are looking to join a familiar list — including Netflix, Zipcar and Pandora, the online radio service — built on access to goods and services, rather than ownership.

But the question is whether most consumers would ever accept time share ownership of a bike or a blender. After a bike share program began in Denver, one gubernatorial candidate in Colorado attacked the program as un-American.

But some scholars say that the Internet — by fostering collaboration on a communal, open platform — has changed the way Americans think about sharing and ownership. Collaborative habits online are beginning to find expression in the real world.

“I thought that online was an exception,” said Yochai Benkler, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, whose coming book, “The Penguin and the Leviathan,” focuses on the explosion of cooperative endeavors, both online and off. “I now am more confident that the phenomenon is not limited to online but is a general phenomenon of human behavior.”

So far, he said, there have been no formal studies into whether the Internet has affected offline cooperation or attitudes about ownership…

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Thousands of Vermonters have made Front Porch Forum into an incredible platform that connects neighbors & builds community. Every day members return lost pets, organize block parties, lend rakes, & exchange ideas about a recent city council meeting.

Building on all this activity, I’m excited to invite my fellow Burlington-area residents to participate in a Global Work Party on 10/10/10, being coordinated by our friends at 350.org. It’s a worldwide day to get to work on community solutions that fight climate change. This issue affects almost every part of our lives, and many of the solutions lie in small, locally connected neighbors getting to work together.

We hope you will take this opportunity to join hundreds of people in Burlington (and thousands of people across the globe) and commit to taking action on 10/10/10.

Here are some action ideas from 350.org:
— host a block bicycle fix-up
— weatherize your neighbor’s house for the winter
— launch or showcase your business’ sustainability initiatives
— harvest a local community garden
— host a local foods potluck or climate film screening
— and much MORE

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When it comes to changing health behaviors, it takes more than a far-flung network of friends on Facebook egging you on. It takes a jostling herd, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Social scientists have assumed that changing behavior would spread like the flu, which transmits best via individuals with lots of long-distance contacts.

But to change behavior, you need to be surrounded by the message — with neighbors, family and members in the community all reinforcing the same idea.

“For about 35 years, wisdom in the social sciences has been that the more long ties there are in a network, the faster a thing will spread,” Damon Centola of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose study appears in the journal Science, said in a statement.

“It’s startling to see that this is not always the case.”

Knowing how best to influence health behavior is important to health reform as the United States turns its focus to preventing disease, rather than treating it…

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I was alerted to this intriguing data point by ValPak’s Twitter feed: according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 21% of US adults do not use the Internet. That works out to about 50 million people (figuring the US adult population is about 240M).

Interesting data to keep in mind… 79% is a huge proportion… but it’s not 100%. It makes Front Porch Forum‘s high take rates all the more remarkable… greater than 40% of households subscribe in dozens of neighborhoods and towns in our pilot region.

And it makes projects like e-Vermont that much more important. Check out e-Vermont’s new website and, if you live in Vermont, get your community to apply for the second round of grants by Nov. 17, 2010! From e-Vermont…

e-Vermont’s new web site, www.e4vt.org, is the central spot to keep updated on the e-Vermont Community Broadband Project. This two-year initiative is helping rural Vermont towns take full advantage of the Internet to create jobs, drive school innovation, provide social services, and increase civic involvement. e-Vermont is not stringing cable or fiber, but is working to make better use of broadband where it is available.

The new e-Vermont Partnership, led by the Vermont Council on Rural Development, is already working together with selected communities statewide to provide digital tools and in-depth training. Twelve more towns will be selected by the end of 2010 to be part of this project. The new website has details on how to apply prior to the November 17 deadline. It also carries updates on the exciting work in the first 12 e-communities, and includes a calendar of upcoming workshops and conferences that will share what is being learned in these pilot towns with communities around Vermont.

For further info, you can also reach e-Vermont at 802 225-6091, or Helen_at_vtrural_dot_org.

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O. N.E. Cat Snatcher on the Loose – From the Bureau of Are You Friggin’ Kidding Me?
According to Front Porch Forum, there’s a cat nabber on the loose (pussy pillager, perhaps?) in the Old North End. Read on to hear the tragic tale of Beansie, stolen right out of his own yard.

Around 1:30 Tuesday afternoon, Sept 14th, a woman wearing a pink sweatsuit was seen entering my yard and stealing my large, soft, long-haired orange cat, who tried to resist. The woman was then seen trotting down Blodgett Street to North Street carrying my kitty. She is identified as white, approximately 5’5″ tall with brownish hair, stocky build, wearing pink sweats. My kitty, Beansie, is 6-years old, may have some Maine Coon cat in him and weighs about 14 lbs.

There’s a $200 reward for information leading to the safe return of my beloved cat.

Please spread the word! Thank you!!! And thanks to all my wonderful neighbors who are helping!

First, let’s talk about how it’s sort of amazing that this woman in the pink sweatsuit could jog down the block carrying a 14-pound cat. I couldn’t jog down the block without or without a squirming cat. Second, let’s talk about how Beansie put up a fight. Good for him. I hope he scratched the crap out of the pink sweatsuit lady. Meow!

If anyone has any info about Beansie or the thief, contact FPF or the Burlington Police Department at 658-2704.

UPDATE, 9/17: We’ve received word that Beanzie the cat has come back.

BEANZIE appeared on my doorstep this morning and seems fine overall, slightly stressed, but very happy to be home after his ordeal. We figure he either escaped or was let go by the woman who took him after a high profile neighborhood effort to find him.

Thank you to all who sent good vibes and/or lent a hand in the search for Beanzie!

Thank you Front Porch Forum for providing the means to get word out fast. And extra special thanks for the incredible outpouring of support and help from friends and neighbors on Blodgett, North, Pitkin, and Strong Street, my incredible and dedicated co-workers at Champlain Housing Trust, and the many small businesses on North Street who will be getting more of my patronage in the future!

p. s. Many thanks to the Burlington Police Department, and especially Officer Navari, who showed compassion and diligence while investigating a few leads to try to find the Cat Burglar in the North Street area. Beanzie and I are very grateful!

Oh happy day!

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When I logged into FPF today, I noticed listed on the left side of the main neighborhood page there are approximately 700 potential households within the boundaries of this forum and approximately 670 members are registered with FPF. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s a 95% participation rate… I wonder how many other communities have this kind of result? Congratulations Fellow Huntingtonians!

And my response…

… that’s right… there are 670 FPF subscribers in Huntington out of about 700 households… incredible! And, as anyone following along can see, you and your neighbors make great use of this service.

Started four years ago, FPF now hosts 150 online neighborhood forums across 40 Vermont towns scattered across the state… check here for the full list of towns served (more to come in 2011!)… http://bit.ly/2o1b8H

Of those, a small number are on par with Huntington… e.g., the Five Sisters neighborhood in Burlington’s South End. Your neighboring towns are no slouches either, e.g.,